Okay, so I talked to a physicist friend of mine and did some basic research and it turns out I was even more right about ballistics in space than I thought. I was operating under the assumption that a kinetic weapon would need to launch a massive projectile, even at high speeds, in order to achieve the force necessary to kill its target (hence the “death Buick” moniker). And while the mass of the projectile does make a difference in a number of factors, it turns out that even an object as small as a baseball launched at roughly 90% the speed of light would produce a thermonuclear explosion large enough to level a city.

Essentially, once the death baseball comes into contact with matter (even gaseous matter like an atmosphere) the matter in front of the baseball is so compressed that it actually fuses together and begins a fusion reaction. Exactly how big of a reaction will occur depends on the size and speed of the projectile (the smaller the object, the greater the necessary velocity).

This augmentation of the paradigm I presented means a couple of things. First, it would mean that these weapons could not be fired from in the atmosphere, as it would just touch off a nuclear explosion at the firing point instead of at the target location.

Second, it actually makes more sense that militaries employing this technology would choose smaller objects at higher speeds. For one, higher speeds mean easier aiming at greater distances. For another, smaller objects are easier to load. I am now envisioning thermonuclear machine guns, spraying death baseballs all over an opposing planet or ship.

This actually speeds up the paradigm of stray death baseballs beginning to hit unintended targets since there will likely be far more projectiles being launched.